The Federal Government on Monday declared its readiness to continue to ensure that sanitary problems were effectively tackled across the country.

Malam Ibrahim Jibril, the Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Environment, said this at the 2016 World Toilet Day celebration in Abuja with the theme: “Toilets and Jobs’’.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the forum was organised by Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON).

Jibril said that government was making every effort to promote sound environmental sanitation practices among the populace.

The minister said that the commitment by government was demonstrated by the ministry`s initiative tagged: “Clean and Green’’. which had been designed to sanitise major towns and cities in the country.

He said that the government would partner with various sectors of government and private organisations to ensure that sanitary facilities were provided for communities where open defecation had become the norm.

He said that this year`s theme draws attention to the importance of accessibility to toilet`s sanitation, jobs and productivity.

“It is also focused on reawakening of societal consciousness to the significance of having a toilet by every household, business and public places,’’ he said.

The minister said that the world celebrates World Toilet Day every Nov. 19 as declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013.

He said that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) six, was to ensure water supply and sanitation for all.

He said that the achievement of the goal would remove sanitation stigma and heighten advocacy for multiple benefits that flow from better hygiene, household sanitation, indiscriminate waste disposal and waste management.

The minister said that access to sanitary facilities remained a mirage to majority of people, adding that some communities still used bush as their regular means for excreta disposal.

According to him, many institutions do not have good sanitary facilities. It is either not functioning or it is being misused by people.

He called on Nigerians to ensure that they practiced the habit of safe excreta disposal by building and owning a toilet in their environment.

Dr Bukar Hassan, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, said that sanitation was one of the important activities and constitutional responsibility of the ministry.

Hassan urged Nigerians to join hands to support strategies toward achieving a higher level of sanitation coverage in the country.

Mr Dominic Abonyi, the Registrar of EHORECON said that good toilets were collective aspiration of sound health and prosperity.

Abonyi said that a sustainable maintenance of toilets was important for individual quality, community as well as for the nation.